Antique Elgin Pocket Watches for Collectors and Investors + the History of Elgin Antique Pocket watches.

History:

The Elgin National Watch Company was founded in 1864 by J.C.Adams a Chicago watchmaker in partnership with former associates of the ‘Waltham Watch Company’ and is most commonly known as simply ‘Elgin Watch Company’.

Elgin Watch Company set up it’s first factory in 1866 in Elgin, Illinois on 35 acres of land donated by the City, and the first watch movement produced by the Elgin factory was a ‘B.W.Raymond, 18 size, full plate design.

During World War II the Elgin Watch Company manufactured bombsights and other precision military instruments for the defence industry but in 1964 the Elgin Watch Companies factory in Elgin closed, having produced half of the pocket watches in the U.S.A. in it’s life time.

The Elgin Watch Company produced pocket watches under the names of Elgin and Lord Elgin, later the company relocated to Columbia, South Carolina and renamed to Elgin, South Carolina.

The rights to the name "Elgin" were sold to MZ Berger, but Elgin-branded watches produced after 1964 have no other connection to Elgin or the Elgin Watch Company.

The Elgin Watch company produced many handsome pocket watches in a wide variety of styles including: hunter style, open face and railroad grade pocket watches.  The hunter style pocket watch comes with a lid that opens with a click, open face type Elgin pocket watches have no lid covering the glass dial covering and railroad grade pocket watches are also open faced but are also lever set providing an increased level of accuracy.  Elgin pocket watches were an extremely popular make in their time and these days Elgin antique pocket watches remain a firm favourite amongst the worlds dedicated watch collectors

Some of my favorite antique Elgin pocket watches include:

This 18 size Elgin B.W. Raymond movement housed in a 14K gold box hinged hunters case.  This antique Elgin pocket watch features a variety of leaf and flower designs, vermacilli, circular engine turnings and an initialled shield centers the front cover.  The back of the cover features an extremely detailed village scene and each cover tapers on a classic polished ring ending in a raised pie crust lip. 

The case is signed "Warranted 14K - U.S. Assay - B.W.C.Co. - 678418." The Brooklyn Watch Case Company was a large case manufacture that was well respected for their large, heavy gold cases. This case is an excellent example of their work.

This antique Elgin pocket watch measures 56mm (2 3/16") wide X 85mm (3 1/4") from the top of the bow to the base of the case X 18mm (3/4") thick. Total weight of the piece is a super heavy 5.6 ounces (159 grams).

The front cover on this antique Elgin pocket watch opens to reveal a beautiful double sunk, white porcelain dial which is marked with black Roman hour chapters. Blue, fluer-de-lis pointers center the dial and are bright and clean. The dial is stark white and clean and features an 18 size, 15 Jewel, B.W. Raymond grade 27, nickel, full plate, stem wind and lever set movement.

Another favorite Elgin antique pocket watch of mine is this 19 jewel Elgin B.W.Raymond 18K Gold open faced pocket watch. This is an excellent example of a quality railroad grade Elgin pocket watch, 16 size, lever set, and it was produced circa 1910.

This antique Elgin pocket watch features a very fine white and blue stylised dial with Arabic chapters that are enhanced by silver archways and silver leaf designs. In addition silver flowers, five-minute numerals and sapphire blue paste stones also adorn this watches dial. The hands are gold Louis XIV , the ultra-heavy gold case is engine turned on the back cover and along the outer edge and front bezel. It comes with a plain polished inner cuvette, the condition is unused. The 3/4 plate movement is signed "19 Jewels Adjusted 5 Positions B. W. Raymond." This wonderful timepiece is fully damaskeened and presented with a jewelled main spring barrel, all of which makes for an extremely stunning antique Elgin pocket watch that any collector would be proud to own.